Israel Adesanya thinks Jon Jones gets the job done at UFC 309.
Jones’ return to the Octagon this Saturday night inside Madison Square Garden will see him fight for just the second since before the COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide shutdown in March 2020. Following his quickfire submission victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, ‘Bones’ will put his undisputed heavyweight title on the line against two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic — another fighter who’s been inactive for the last three-and-a-half years.
While Jones vs. Miocic has been a fairly contentious fight for fans of the sport, and likely won’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things, it still presents and intriguing matchup between two of the greatest fighters of all time.
Offering his breakdown of the often-maligned main event via his YouTube channel, ‘The Last Stylebender’ started his assessment by looking back at Jones’ spectacular heavyweight debut 20 months ago.
“Jones lately looks better at heavyweight already,” Adesanya said. He has been taking this seriously, and again, the way he fights… like, bro, the Ciryl Gane fight was the one that made me go, ‘Yeah, nah, he’s the best.’ Cause I thought Ciryl Gane was gonna give him some trouble. Ciryl was like the new-age heavyweight, and Jones was like, ‘Hold my beer,’ and he just… sneakily, none of us knew—even DC was like, ‘What did he catch him with?’ It was like a sneaky front choke. The guy is just crafty, creative with what he does.”
Israel Adesanya predicts an early night for jon jones
Of course, you can never count out a tough-as-nails scrapper like Stipe Miocic. After all, the Cleveland native is the only man in UFC history to hold the heavyweight title on two separate occasions. He’s also the only one to defend it three consecutive times, defeating Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, and Francis Ngannou in the process.
“But with Stipe… Stipe is tough,” Adesanya said. “He can outwork a lot of heavyweights. You’ve seen what he’s done in the past, you’ve seen his reign as a heavyweight. He’s knocked people out, submitted people. But in this fight, man, I think he’s up against it.”
But even after glazing Miocic, the ‘Stylebender’ is riding with ‘Bones’ to get the job done inside the world’s most famous arena.
“I’m gonna pick Jon Jones,” Adesanya added. “I’m gonna pick it by maybe the second or first—yeah, first two rounds, he’s gonna finish him. But again, this is fighting—sh*t happens. It could just be a zig-zag, boom. If Stipe gets it done, it will be the biggest upset in UFC history. If he gets it done… and that should be motivation enough for him to wanna get it done, yeah.
“I’m gonna go Jon Jones within the first two rounds. I don’t know if it’s gonna be a knockout or a submission, but I feel like Jon might try and enjoy this and soak this up.”
